Home Office

Refugees: Afghanistan

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks made byLord Sharpe of Epsom on 18 December 2023 (HL Deb cols 2046-2049)how many members of the Hazara community targeted by the Taliban and IS-K in Afghanistan have been resettled to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy or the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: Resettlement of eligible Afghans remains a top priority for this Government.The latest published Immigration system statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab) show that at the end of September 2023, around 24,600 vulnerable people affected by the events in Afghanistan have been brought to safety so far.Statistics on individuals resettled or relocated under the Afghan schemes is available in the immigration system statistics release. For detailed data, see table Asy_D02 of the asylum and resettlement datasets.The Home Office does not publish data on resettlement by ethnicity, as ethnicity is not routinely collected in a way that is reportable.The capacity of the UK to resettle people is not unlimited and difficult decisions have to be made on who will be prioritised for resettlement.We continue to work with likeminded partners and countries neighbouring Afghanistan on resettlement issues, and to support safe passage for eligible Afghans.

Visas: Families

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of children likely to be separated from a British parent as a result of the increase to the salary threshold to £38,700 for those applying for spousal or partner visas.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: The family Immigration Rules contain an existing provision for exceptional circumstances where there would be unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant, their partner, a relevant child, or another family member, if their application were to be refused. This will continue to be the case when the minimum income requirement is increased in spring 2024.

Migrant Workers: Visas

Lord Weir of Ballyholme: To ask His Majesty's Government howthey intend to fill the gap in the jobs market created by the anticipated reduction in legal working migrants as a result of the Government's proposed change to the income requirement thresholds for legal migration,and how much suchactionsor training schemes are expected to cost.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: As the Prime Minister has made clear, current levels of migration to the UK are far too high. The long-term plan the Home Secretary has announced would mean around 300,000 of the people who came to the UK last year would not have been able to come. Raising the salary criteria is designed to ensure that resident workers’ wages cannot be undercut and ensures that the skilled worker route is not used as a source of low-cost labour. This will encourage employers to invest in the resident population and move away from the reliance on migrant labour. This is alongside our extensive efforts to get more British people working. The Government believes immigration must be considered alongside investment in, and development of, the UK’s domestic labour force, rather than as an alternative to it. Enquiries on how best to address recruitment issues and/or take of advantage of the skills system to grow the workforce should in the first instance be directed to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Department for Education, as the departments dealing with employment and skills respectively. DWP has a broad offer to support people back into and progress in work. Our £2.5bn Back to Work plan – announced as part of the Autumn Statement - will go further by helping thousands of people with disabilities, long-term health conditions and the long-term unemployed, to move into jobs.

Department of Health and Social Care

Physiotherapy: Older People

Lord Jackson of Peterborough: To ask His Majesty's Government what stepsthey are taking to encourage the (1) consistent, and (2) timely, provision of inpatient physiotherapy in acute district hospitals for older patients with frailty syndrome.

Lord Markham: Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT), in conjunction with the British Geriatrics Society, published Six Steps to Better Care for Older People in Acute Hospitals, which accompanies the GIRFT hospital acute care frailty pathway. A copy of the document is attached.The acute care pathway recommends that all older patients admitted to hospital as an emergency are assessed for their degree of frailty using a standardised assessment, namely the Clinical Frailty Scale. For patients identified as living with moderate or severe frailty, the pathway recommends a multidomain assessment, namely the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, and links this to functional optimisation, which would commonly include physiotherapy assessment supporting recovery or maintenance of mobility.Ongoing support to patients to prevent hospital-acquired deconditioning should be supported by the whole ward team after physiotherapists have recommended appropriate intervention.The Six Steps to Better Care guidance makes similar recommendations for older patients admitted to hospital for planned care. As part of GIRFT's ongoing review and support, implementation of these recommendations is reviewed at individual hospital trusts, including the staffing levels of older person multidisciplinary teams, which include physiotherapists.In addition, GIRFT recommends the development of Advanced Care Practitioners (ACPs) specialising in frailty. Some trusts have development programmes to support training of ACPs, although there is variation in provision.Six Steps to Better Care for Older People (pdf, 281.2KB)

Health Services: Staff

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote collaboration among all professions and support staff within the NHS to ensure comprehensive, patient-centred, and integrated healthcare.

Lord Markham: On 1 July 2022, the Government established statutory integrated care systems (ICSs). ICSs are partnerships of organisations that come together to champion an integrated approach to person-centred care. This aims to bring together professionals from health and social care, alongside local and voluntary partners, to support people to retain their independence, health, and wellbeing for longer.Furthermore, the Major Conditions Strategy will focus on where there are similarities in approach between major condition groups and ensure care is better centered around the patient. It will outline how our workforce model needs to adapt, reflecting that the National Health Service is caring for patients with increasingly complex needs and with multiple long-term conditions.In October 2023, the Government published the Shared outcomes toolkit for integrated care systems in an online-only format to support the development of shared outcomes as a powerful means of bringing professionals together to promote integrated care. The Government expects that from March 2024, all places within ICSs can evidence their work towards developing shared outcomes.Finally, NHS England e-learning for healthcare is working in partnership with the NHS and professional bodies to support patient care by providing e-learning to educate and train the health and social care workforce. This includes e-learning on how to work as a multidisciplinary team.

Department for Education

Children in Care: Racial Discrimination

Baroness Scott of Needham Market: To ask His Majesty's Government what is their response to the Barnardo’s report Double Discrimination, which looks at the differential outcomes Black children face both in and leaving care.

Baroness Barran: The department recognises that children in care are more likely than their peers in the general population to have contact with the criminal justice system. The department has a joint national protocol with the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on reducing the unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers and is taking action on risk factors that can lead to criminal behaviour, including through its work to improve school attendance. Through the care leaver Ministerial Board, the department is working closely with the MoJ to improve support and outcomes of care-experienced people in the criminal justice system. MoJ is currently updating its strategy for people with care experience in the criminal justice system, to ensure that their time in the criminal justice system is used to support them to lead crime-free lives. The strategy will include a focus on race and its role in shaping the experiences and outcomes of those with care experience and will link to wider departmental efforts to address racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system. MoJ are aiming to publish this strategy in 2024. The department will continue to work urgently across government and with local authorities to ensure that all vulnerable children, no matter their age, race, ethnicity, or circumstances, are kept safe and receive the support they need. The department will engage with foster carer representative bodies to see how it can further support black foster carers, including considering developing a Black Foster Care Network whilst ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’ sets out the department’s plans to reform the children’s social care system, including improving the education, employment, and training outcomes of children in care and care leavers.

Children and Young People

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce mandatory Children’s Rights and wellbeing impact assessments for all policy development and decision-making across Government to promote the needs and best interests of children and young people.

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they take to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policies across Government.

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to adopt a cross-Government strategy and outcomes framework to drive improvements for children and young people.

Baroness Barran: Children’s Rights Impact Assessments are a valuable tool in ensuring children’s rights are considered when developing new policy and legislation. Whilst the department does not intend to give these impact assessments a statutory basis, it encourages the use of them across governmental departments when developing policies.The government takes steps to consider the needs of children and young people when developing policy such as consulting with internal policy teams, as well as the relevant external experts, organisations, and representative groups. Much of the government’s policy is targeted at helping those that need help most, including the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The government also operates within the Public Sector Equality Duty, which places a duty on government to consider the impact of policies on people who share protected characteristics, including age.In line with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury requirements, the department produces an annual plan to ensure delivery of my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s, priorities. This sets out the department’s priority outcomes and ensures that they are embedded across government in relevant departmental strategies.